Collaboration with a recently formed consortium could see Belgium build its first small modular reactors by 2040, according to Peter Baeten, director-general of the SCK CEN nuclear research centre in Mol.

“Belgium has already invested 100 million euros ($109m) in research and wants to bring the technology to the market by 2040, Baeten told public broadcaster VRT. “They [SMRs] have advantages on an ecological and economic level.”

Belgium has traditionally built large-scale reactors, but is now focusing on the construction of multiple SMRs, potentially producing their components domestically, Baeten said during an interview on VRT Radio 1’s The World Today.